A DANGEROUS knifeman once given an extended prison sentence for public protection has been jailed for five years for a fresh series of crimes involving blades.

Danny Oxley, 26, from Darlington, confronted two 14-year-olds in the town’s North Park at night and demanded their mobile phones, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Just five days later, he held a Stanley knife to a man’s throat after knocking him to the ground in Haughton Road and stole his phone after rifling his pockets.

When Oxley’s description was given, police went to the home of his girlfriend and found two stolen handsets, prosecutor Jenny Haigh told the court.

The judge, Recorder Toby Hedworth, QC, heard how Oxley has 30 offences on his record – including robberies in 2008, 2009 and 2011, and a stabbing in 2015.

Two years ago, he was given an extended sentence when he was deemed a danger to the public for knifing his partner in the chest because he thought she was cheating.

Mr Recorder Hedworth told him: “Your offending has a great deal more to do with what you ingest rather than any particular personality traits as far as I can see.”

Shaun Dryden, mitigating, said Oxley has had mental health issues since his mid-teens, and his problems are made worse by excessive use of drugs and alcohol.

Oxley wrote letters of apology to his victims and had hoped to hand them to the judge, but appeared in court via a live video-link from Durham Prison instead.

Mr Dryden said his memory of the attacks is vague, adding: “He has difficulty explaining what happened, but that’s down to him and the drugs and alcohol.”

Three months before the August robberies, Oxley was involved in another crime involving a knife following an altercation at a friend’s home in Corporation Road.

Police went to his home address after the dispute, but he ran off, jumped over garden walls, caused damage when he fell through a garage and ended up on a roof.

Miss Haigh said he was finally talked down and cutting his wrists, and later told officers that he would not have hurt anyone but himself with the blade.

Oxley, of Barden Moor Road, Darlington, admitted two robberies, an attempted robbery, criminal damage and three charges of possessing a bladed article.

Jailing him for five years and one month, Mr Recorder Hedworth told him: “Those must, inevitably, have been terrifying attacks on the 14-year-old friends.”